Putting the “Dog” in Dogma
2 Timothy 2:1-7
Cascades Fellowship CRC, JX MI
Oct. 1, 2006
Mission and Vision, Rnd. II
In the movie Dogma Hollywood takes a very irreverent look at the Catholic faith. Cardinal Glick apparently thinks the church suffers from an image problem – it is outdated, he says, and the crucifix is “wholly depressing.” So he conceives and executes a plan to make the church more hip. To improve the image of the church and make it more accessible to today’s youth culture, Cardinal Glick launches the “Catholicism: Wow!” campaign, where he updates the image of Christ. In the update, he removes the crucifix and replaces it with the “Buddy Christ.”
This smiling, congenial, schmoozer Jesus is presented in an elaborate ceremony and is heralded as the new face of the Savior of the world. No longer must we gaze upon the bloodied form of the crucified Christ. Now, we have a Jesus more like us – as easy going and as fun-loving as we are. What more could you ask for?
How about some Truth? How about some real dogma?
Dogma is one of those words that has fallen out of favor in general parlance. Much like the word “queer” simply use to mean “strange” but now is a disparaging term for a homosexual, so the meaning of “dogma” has migrated from “an authoritative decree or judgment” to “referring to concepts as being ‘established’ only according to a particular point of view, and thus one of doubtful foundation” In other words, today “dogma” means an opinion without authority; something held by blind faith and only true to the person espousing it.
To put it in a pun, “dogma” has gone to the dogs. So much so that Hollywood has made spoof of it … dogma is whatever is convenient and works at the moment. And as much as I hate to admit it, they have good reason to portray the modern church this way.
Much like the cardinal in the movie, the itch to update, shape and rewrite the essential teachings of the Christian faith to more closely mirror the surrounding culture has distressed the church for as long as there has been a church. There is no doubt that the church in North America has become entangled in consumerism – instead of strategies for evangelism, I receive offers in the mail for marketing strategies on a weekly basis. There is a reason for that – you can believe the advertising and marketing industry, whose specialty is sniffing out audiences and making an appealing pitch for a product, senses the church is ripe for the picking. They know the church is so open to new ideas, that it is willing to compromise some the old established ones in the interest of survival.
In other words, the church has begun to look at dogma in much the same terms as the world – an opinion whose authority can be questioned on the basis of new realities; shifts in culture and thought. As long as we still tell people that Jesus loves them, what does it matter how we go about it? In today’s world simply preaching the Gospel doesn’t work – we have got to offer them more.
Now, I understand that all this talk of shifts in culture and thought comes off as a bit academic. So let me say it simply. In the view of most people inside and outside the church, dogma doesn’t work. People don’t want dogma, you hear experts say, they want a relationship. True enough, at least the relationship part. But there is a real problem brewing when we say that dogma is not important.
Dogma is one of those words that come directly from another language into the English language – in this case from Greek to English. If you say “dogma” you are actually speaking two languages at once. As mentioned before, its original meaning references a decree or judgment that is authoritative. In other words, dogmas were accepted and obeyed as nonnegotiable. For example, in Luke 2:1 Augustus sends out the dogma or decree that a census shall be taken of the entire Roman world. That particular dogma set Mary and Joseph upon the path to Bethlehem and an appointment with God’s plan of redemption. Another example comes from the writings of Paul, where he uses the word to describe the Law of Moses – again, a decree that is fixed and nonnegotiable.
Now, I will admit, we don’t have much to do with decrees of Caesar today and as Paul points out in Colossians 2:13-14
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, b God made you c alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.
But the word “dogma” also shows up in Acts 16:4, where Paul and Timothy are traveling from town to town, delivering the decisions or dogma reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the members of the church to obey. These decisions are part of the same witness that is passed on to us today through the Scriptures. They have become the dogma of the Christian faith, the nonnegotiables - what we call the Word of God or God’s revealed will.
One of the characteristics of the Reformed faith in general and the Christian Reformed Church specifically is the deep concern for doctrine, for dogma – a characteristic that of late has been much maligned and seen as a weakness rather than a strength. The criticism leveled is that all our concern for thinking rightly about God – thinking shaped by a very high view of the Scriptures and documents such as the Heidelberg Catechism – this concern for right-thinking has lead to cold hearts. We have a lot of head knowledge about God, the critics say, but no heart knowledge. Our faith isn’t hip, it isn’t happening - it doesn’t connect in today’s world.
Now, if this is true – if dogma really doesn’t matter and concern for thinking rightly about God is actually a hindrance to faith and a real heart for God – we officially have a problem. Why? Because our mission/vision statement begins “A Christian Reformed Church.” Our starting point is a nod toward a faith that ultimately leads to a cold heart. We know a lot about God, we just don’t know how to use what we know.
So the question then becomes, should we abandon our faith heritage? Is it really important for us to be a Reformed witness in our community? Should we be so concerned about doctrine, about dogma?
In 2 Timothy, Paul is writing to his rather timid protégé, Timothy, who he has left in charge of the church in Ephesus during his absence. Paul is in prison, thrown in jail because of his insistence on preaching the Gospel. He senses that his days are drawing to a close and under Nero’s reign the Gospel is threatened. Not only is the Roman state trying to crush the church, there is also a dearth of false teachers. So Paul writes to Timothy, to encourage him to hold tightly to the Gospel he learned from him in the face persecution and to defend it in the face of false teaching.
What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us…. You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.
When I read Paul telling Timothy “to keep” what he has heard from Paul as sound teaching; “to guard” the Gospel as a precious deposit; “to entrust” the Gospel to reliable men, I am put in mind of a holy hard-headedness, if I may put it that way. The language here suggests that Paul is telling Timothy, “Grab on to this and don’t let go – even if in the throes of death!”
The pit bull, as you may know, is bred to be a fighter. But what you may not know is what they were originally bred to fight with. The pit bull is a actually a mutt that made good – having terrier and mastiff breeds in its line. From the mastiff side of the tree, they are descended from bulldogs, which in pre-industrial England were farm dogs. You know what they were used for? To protect the farmer from the bull when he was trying feed, castrate or breed him. If the bull turned to gore the farmer the bull dog would subdue the bull “by biting the bull on the nose and holding on until the bull submitted. Because of the nature of their job, bulldogs were bred to have powerful, muscular bodies, and the resolve to hold onto a violently-struggling bull, even when injured.”
That’s the sort of picture that Paul is drawing for Timothy here with words like “keep,” “guard,” and “entrust.” Timothy, grab hold of this Gospel, this doctrine, this dogma and do not let go no matter how violently life shakes. Latch on to it as if your life and the life of those you shepherd depend on it; like a bulldog protecting the farmer from the bull. Put the dog in dogma, Timothy.
Now, let’s remember something here. Paul is fairly sure that he is going to be executed at this point. In fact, later in the letter – chapter 4:6-7 – Paul tells Timothy, “For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” Paul knows that his work on earth is finished and that soon he will be going to meet the Lord he has served so diligently. Like the dying victim who only has time to whisper the name of his assailant, Paul concentrates his thoughts and pen on what is of the utmost importance. And what does he think is of highest importance? Sound doctrine – healthy, profitable dogma. You read the entire letter of 2 Timothy and you come away from it feeling Paul’s intense belief that good, solid teaching is essential to the Christian faith. Right-thinking, Paul says in this letter, is a must.
This, I think, answers our question about our heritage of right-thinking – we should not abandon it. Remember what it means to be Christian Reformed – it means to find our origin, our reason for being in the person of Christ, and to be transformed by consistently surrendering ourselves to God’s Word, and through God’s word to be conformed to the character and life of Jesus Christ. In other words, we should be more than reformed, we should be constantly reforming; checking what we believe and how we think and what we do against the dogma passed on to us by the apostles – against the Scriptures – strengthening where our belief is consistent with the biblical witness and being challenged and changed where we find our faith does not measure up.
But this requires us to honestly believe that holding on to the words of the Scripture is a matter of life and death. This requires us to believe what Paul says about the Gospel in Romans 1:16, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.” It requires us to believe that what the writer of Hebrews says is true, “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” It requires us to believe that doctrine; that biblical dogma really matters; that thinking rightly about God really matters.
Brothers and sister in Christ, it is a good thing that we declare ourselves to be “A Christian Reformed Church,” because it means that we take the Word of God seriously enough to surrender to it, to expose ourselves to it daily; allowing it to shape our hearts and minds. It means that we believe God’s Word when it says that our life is hid in Christ and in him we live and move and have our being. It means that we are still reforming, having our character changed and shaped to be like Jesus. Like the lump of clay that started out to be a spittoon and the potter is now shaping into an exquisite urn to hold the most elegant wine, we are being reformed as vessels for the Gospel.
But all begins with dogma – with the decrees and judgments of God that he has declared to us through his Word. [Hold up the Bible] You see, it matters greatly how you think of the words on the pages of this book. Are they God’s words? If you believe they are then you should be paying very close attention to them – after all he is the Creator of the Universe and Source of Life. If you believe these are God’s words, then you should make it your first priority to know them and to obey them where they command us. To put it in a pun, you should be dogged about dogma.
In the introduction to his commentary on 2 Timothy, John Stott cries out for us hear the message of 2 Timothy today. “For all around us,” he says, “we see Christians and churches relaxing their grasp of the Gospel, fumbling it, in danger of letting it drop from their hands altogether.” He’s calling us to put the dog back in dogma.
It’s okay to try and cast the Gospel in contemporary terms, but let’s make sure that we are first so profoundly shaped by the Word of God that we don’t offer a Gospel-Lite in our attempts to be relevant. We don’t need a “Buddy Christ. What we need to do is trust God’s Word – read his Word, hungrily sop up God’s Word like that last drop of sausage gravy and then apply his Word – before we start worrying about relevance. I believe we will find that as we walk in the Light of God’s Word, our very lives will make his Word relevant. We will become walking translators of the ancient text into a modern world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogma
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pit_bull#History
John Stott The Message of 2 Timothy: The Bible Speaks Today InterVarsity Press Leicester, England 1973 p.22
